Listverse.com's Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Top 10 Lists: Unbelievable Facts and Astounding Trivia on Movies, Music, Crime, Celebrities, History, and More

By Jamie Frater

A collection of crazy-but-true facts, peculiar occurrences, despicable crimes, bizarre records, unbelievable creatures, and many more shocking oddities.

Delving into the shocking side of pop culture, science and history, Listverse.com’s Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Top 10 Lists offers a wealth of fascinating reading with over 200 lists and more than 2,000 interesting facts, including:

• Alien Artifacts

• Creepy Urban Legends

• Bizarre Murder Weapons

• Horrific TV Accidents

• Outrageous Rock Tales

• Twisted Circus Acts

• Terrifying Villains

• Crazy-but-True Movie Plots

• Dirty CIA Operations

• Monstrously Evil Babysitters

• Strange Hamburger Facts

• Animal Freaks of Nature

• Mind-Blowing Technologies

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781612433356

Jamie Frater

Jamie Frater was born in Naenae, a suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, in 1974. He studied postgraduate music at the Royal College of Music in London, after which, due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts, he created listverse.com where he presents a new top ten list every day. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations in the United States and Great Britain. Jamie now writes full-time for his California-based website from his home.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

MYSTERIES

1.Top 10 Mysterious Artifacts That Are Allegedly Alien

2.Top 10 Real-Life Hidden Treasures You Could Still Find

3.Top 10 People Who Vanished into Thin Air

4.Top 10 Creepy Mysteries Involving Unidentified People

5.Top 10 Mysterious Urban Legends Based on Video Footage

6.Top 10 Places as Mysterious as the Bermuda Triangle

7.Top 10 Mysteries That Hint at Forgotten Advanced Civilizations

8.Top 10 Mysterious Letters

9.Top 10 Strange Unsolved Mysteries

10.Top 10 Mysterious Mass Animal Deaths

11.Top 10 Mysterious Prehistoric Sites from Around the World

12.Top 10 Entertainment Careers Cut Short by Unsolved Mysteries

13.Top 10 Secretly Connected Topics

Top 10 Mysterious Artifacts That Are Allegedly Alien

by Pauli Poisuo

10 The Russian UFO Tooth Wheel

A Russian man found a strange piece of machinery from Vladivostok, the administrative capital of the Primorsky Krai area. The object resembled a piece of tooth wheel and was embedded in a piece of coal the man was using to light a fire. Although discarded pieces of old machines are not uncommon in Russia, the man became curious and showed his find to some scientists. Testing revealed that the toothed object was almost pure aluminum and almost certainly artificially made.

Also, it was 300 million years old. This raised some interesting questions, as aluminum of this purity and shape can’t form naturally and humans didn’t figure out how to make it until 1825. Curiously, the object also resembles parts that are used in microscopes and other delicate technical devices.

Although conspiracy theorists have been quick to declare the find a part of an alien spaceship, the scientists researching it are not willing to jump to conclusions and wish to run further tests in order to learn more about the mysterious artifact.

9 The Guatemala Stone Head

In the 1930s, explorers found an enormous, elegantly made sandstone statue in the middle of a Guatemalan jungle. The face carved in the stone didn’t resemble the facial features of the Maya or any of the other people known to have populated the lands. In fact, its elongated cranium and fine features didn’t seem to belong in the history books at all.

Researchers have claimed that the statue’s unique features depict a member of an ancient alien civilization that was far more advanced than any of the pre-Hispanic races of America we know about. Some even speculated the head might just be a part of a much larger construct underneath (this was found to be untrue). Of course, there’s a chance that the statue might be the work of a more recent artist or even a complete hoax. Sadly, we will probably never find out for sure: The head was used for target practice by revolutionary troops and its features have been destroyed to near obscurity.

8 The Williams Enigmalith

In 1998, a hiker named John J. Williams noticed an odd metallic protrusion in the dirt. He dug up a strange-looking rock which, upon cleaning, turned out to have a weird electrical component attached to it. The electric device was clearly man-made and somewhat resembled an electrical plug.

The rock has since become a well-known mystery in UFO enthusiast circles. It was featured in UFO Magazine and (according to Williams) Fortean Times, a famed magazine devoted to mysterious phenomena. Williams, an electrical engineer, says the electronic component embedded in the stone has not been glued or welded into the granite. In fact, the rock probably formed around the device.

Many believe that the so-called Williams Enigmalith is a hoax, as Williams refuses to break it (but is willing to sell it for $500,000). Also, the stone device does bear a certain resemblance to heat rocks that are commonly used to keep tropical pet lizards warm. Still, geological analysis has apparently determined that the stone is around 100,000 years old, which (if true) would mean the device inside can’t possibly be of human creation. Williams is confident enough to let anyone research the Enigmalith on three conditions: He must be present, the rock must remain unharmed, and he will not have to pay for the research.

7 Ancient Aeroplanes

Incas and other pre-Columbian people left behind some extremely puzzling trinkets. Some of the strangest are probably the so-called ancient aeroplanes, which are small, golden figures that closely resemble modern jet planes. Originally thought to be zoomorphic (meant to resemble animals), the statues were soon found to have features that look very much like a fighter plane’s wings, stabilizing tails, and even landing gears. They were aerodynamic enough that when ancient astronaut believers allegedly made model planes with their proportions and fitted them with propellers and (again, allegedly) jet engines, they flew perfectly. All of this has led to speculation that the Incas may have been in contact with—likely extraterrestrial—people who were able to build advanced jet planes, and who perhaps even possessed the technology themselves.

Well, that, or these wonderful statuettes might just be artistic representations of bees, flying fish, or other winged creatures. As always, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

6 The Ubaid Lizard Men

The Al-Ubaid archaeological site in Iraq is a gold mine for archaeologists and historians. It has yielded numerous objects from a pre-Sumerian time called the Ubaid period (5900–4000 BC). However, some of these objects are quite disturbing. A number of Ubaid statues depict strange, lizardlike humanoid figures in unique, unceremonious poses that seem to indicate they were not gods (such as the animal-headed deities of Egypt), but rather a race of lizard people.

Of course, the statues have been drawn into stories and theories of reptilian aliens that used to roam the earth (and perhaps still do, according to conspiracy theorists). Although this seems unlikely, their true nature remains a mystery.

5 The Sri Lanka Meteorite Fossils

Researchers who analyzed the remains of a meteorite that fell in Sri Lanka found that their subject was something more than just pieces of space rock. It was an alien artifact in the most literal sense: an artifact made of actual aliens. Two separate studies have found that the meteorite contains fossils and algae that are clearly of extraterrestrial origin.

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, the leading researcher on the first study, says the fossils provide compelling evidence of panspermia (the hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe and is spread by meteorites and other solid space debris). However, he is not without his critics. Wickramasinghe just happens to be a noted panspermia enthusiast with a tendency to claim that almost everything is of extraterrestrial origin. What’s more, the traces of life the meteorite contains are actually freshwater species commonly found on Earth, which seems to indicate the object has been contaminated during its time on our planet.

4 The Summer’s Triumph Tapestry

The tapestry known as Summer’s Triumph was created around 1538 in Bruges, the capital of West Flanders province in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Currently, it resides in the Bayerisches National Museum.

Summer’s Triumph is famous (or infamous) among conspiracy theorists because it clearly depicts a number of distinctly UFO-like objects flying in the skies. Although their presence is baffling, some speculate they may have been added to the tapestry (which depicts a victorious ruler’s ascension to power) in order to connect the UFOs to the ruler as a symbol of divine intervention. This, of course, raises more questions than answers, such as, Why would the 16th-century Belgians recognize flying saucers and mentally connect them with divinity?

3 The Glorification of the Eucharist

An Italian painter named Ventura Salimbeni is responsible for one of the most mysterious altar paintings in history. Disputa of the Eucharist, a 16th-century painting also known as The Glorification of the Eucharist (Eucharist is an alternate term for the Holy Communion), is a three-part work. The bottom two parts are relatively normal: They depict a number of religious authorities and an altar. However, the top part shows the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and a dove depicting the Holy Ghost) looking upon them…and holding what seems to be a space satellite. The object is large and spherical, with a metallic finish, telescopic antennas, and strange lights. In fact, it heavily resembles an old Sputnik satellite.

Although UFO enthusiasts and ancient astronaut theorists have often claimed the Disputa as proof of extraterrestrial life (or perhaps time travel), experts have been quick to debunk such notions. According to them, the orb is a Sphaera Mundi, a globelike representation of the universe that used to be common in religious art. The strange lights on the satellite are merely the sun and the moon, and its antennas are actually scepter wands that act as symbols of authority for the Father and the Son.

2 The Mexican Government’s Maya Artifacts

The story goes like this: In 2012, the Mexican government released a number of Maya artifacts they had been protecting for 80 years as state secrets. These objects were retrieved from an unexplored pyramid that was found under another pyramid in Calakmul, the site of one of the most powerful ancient Maya cities. A government-sanctioned documentary by Raul Julia-Levy (the son of famous actor Raul Julia) and financier Elisabeth Thieriot (ex-wife of a former publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle) featured a number of these finds, most of which clearly depict UFOs and alien visitors.

The case may seem fairly enticing, but once you look closer, a strange pattern of fraud begins to emerge. Both of the documentarians seem to be lying about something. Julia-Levy doesn’t appear to be whom he claims to be; Raul Julia’s widow has publicly called out a conman named Salvador Alba Fuentes as lying about his identity. According to her, Salvador is attempting to ride on her late husband’s fame and is going around telling everyone his name is, yes, Raul Julia-Levy. Meanwhile, Thieriot has shut down the production of the documentary and sued her partner, accusing Julia-Levy of stealing her documentary and misusing filming equipment (a statement Julia-Levy vehemently opposes). What’s more, there seems to be very little scientific proof of the authenticity of the artifacts, and pictures that have emerged online are less than concrete evidence.

Perhaps the artifacts were cheap fakes manufactured by a local artisan. Perhaps the officials had second thoughts about the documentary and ordered Thieriot to shut it down by any means necessary. Whatever the truth behind these strange artifacts, their case is far from convincing.

1 The Betz Mystery Sphere

When the Betz family was examining the damage of a strange fire that had decimated 88 acres of their woodland, they made a strange discovery: a silvery sphere, about eight inches (20 centimeters) in diameter, completely smooth except for a strange, elongated triangle symbol. Initially they thought it might be a NASA gadget or even a Soviet spy satellite, but they eventually decided it was most likely just a souvenir. On a moment’s whim, they decided to take it with them.

Two weeks later, the family’s son was strumming a guitar in the same room as the sphere. Suddenly, the sphere started reacting to his tunes, emitting a strange throbbing sound and a resonance that deeply disturbed the family’s dog. Soon, the Betz family found the orb had other strange properties. It could stop and change directions when pushed across the floor, eventually returning to the person who pushed it like a faithful dog. It seemed to draw power from solar energy, becoming noticeably more active on bright days.

It started looking like something (or someone) was controlling the sphere: It would occasionally emit low-frequency rattling and vibrations, like there was a motor running inside. It seemed to avoid falling and crashing at all costs, as if to protect something inside it. It even managed to completely defy the laws of gravity and climb up a slanted table to avoid falling.

A media frenzy ensued. Respected papers such as the New York Times and the London Daily sent reporters to witness the miracle sphere, which repeated its tricks to countless people. Even scientists and representatives of the military were impressed, although the Betz family wouldn’t let them take the sphere for closer examination. However, that soon changed as the sphere took a turn for the worse. It started exhibiting poltergeistlike behavior: doors started slamming shut at night and strange organ music would fill the house out of the blue. At that point, the family decided to find out what the sphere really was. The Navy analyzed it and found it was…a perfectly ordinary (if high-quality) stainless steel ball.

To this day, it’s not entirely clear what the mysterious sphere is. However, there have been many theories attempting to explain its possible nature. The most plausible of these is the most mundane: Three years before the Betz family found the orb, an artist named James Durling-Jones was driving in the area where it was found. On the luggage rack on his car roof were a number of stainless steel balls meant for a sculpture he was making, some of which dropped off during the bumpy ride. These balls matched the exact description of the Betz sphere, and were balanced enough to roll around at the slightest provocation (the Betz family lived in an old house with uneven floors, so such a ball would appear to behave erratically). These balls could even emit a rattling sound, thanks to tiny metal shavings stuck inside during the manufacturing process.

Although this doesn’t explain all of the reported phenomena, it certainly casts a shadow over the mysterious ghost ball from outer space theory.

Top 10 Real-Life Hidden Treasures You Could Still Find

by Corey Gibson

10 Forrest Fenn Hidden Treasure

Forrest Fenn wants you to have all of his money when he dies.

When Fenn was only nine years old, he found an arrowhead near his home in Texas—an arrowhead that would shape the rest of his life. Fenn fell in love with ancient artifacts. After becoming a pilot in the air force in the 1960s, Fenn regularly flew his plane to Pompeii to look for artifacts, of which he found plenty.

In the 1980s, Fenn was diagnosed with kidney cancer and told he would only have a few years to live. With his mortality looking him right in the face, Fenn decided to hide his most beloved artifacts and give everyone the clues to find his treasure, which he estimates to hold $1–3 million worth of gold, jewelry, and other valuable artifacts.

9 Treasure at Little Bighorn

For many Americans in the late 1800s, traveling West and striking it rich by finding gold didn’t seem like an absurd idea. Some didn’t even make it all the way to the Pacific. A few men struck it rich when they found gold in Montana. When fewer and fewer men dug up gold in that area, though, more and more of them continued west. But they probably should have kept looking.

According to some experts, Captain Grant Marsh was in charge of the Far West, a steamboat making its way up the Bighorn River, which runs through Wyoming and Montana, to resupply General George Custer in his fight against the Indians. When Captain Marsh heard of General Custer’s defeat and found out he would have to take injured men away from the battlefield, the only thing he could do to keep the ship from sinking under the weight of so many wounded men was to bury the $375,000 worth of gold bars he had on board on the shores of the Bighorn River. Some say that Marsh had collected the gold bars from worried gold miners who didn’t want to be attacked by the Sioux.

8 Treasure in the Mojave Desert

It may sound crazy that an oceangoing ship sunk 100 miles inland of the Pacific Ocean—in the Mojave Desert no less—but if it is true, there are millions of dollars worth of pearls in the Salton Sea, a shallow lake in inland Southern California.

Experts believe a large tide from the Gulf of California collided with runoff from the Colorado River. Enough water runoff developed that the ship (presumed to be Spanish) was carried into the Salton Sea. The ship would have been forgotten forever if it weren’t for the abundance of pearls on board.

Surprisingly, there is a twist to the story. In 1870, the Los Angeles Star produced a story about a man named Charley Clusker who went out in search of the ship and actually found the treasure. But since the date the story ran, no other mention of Clusker or the ship he found has been dug up, leading many people to believe the ship and its pearls are still out there.

7 Mosby’s Treasure in Virginia

Confederate Commander Colonel John Singleton Mosby was one sneaky fighter during the Civil War. He and his men were known as Mosby’s Raiders for their lightning-quick raids of Union camps and their ability to elude the Union Army by blending in with the local townspeople. Mosby was essentially like Mel Gibson’s character in The Patriot, but without all the drama.

After one of his many raids, which took place about 45 miles south of the Confederate line at Culpeper, Virginia, Mosby took Union General Edwin Stoughton prisoner, as well as a burlap sack containing $350,000 worth of gold, silver, and family heirlooms. The problem was, Mosby had also captured 42 other men during the raid and had to take them back through Union territory and across the Confederate line.

Following a route that parallels today’s U.S. Route 211, Mosby’s Raiders traveled south until they ran into a large contingency of Union soldiers. Unwilling to part with his treasure, Mosby instructed his men to bury the treasure between two large pine trees in case of a battle. Mosby marked the trees with his knife, and the Raiders headed back along their route and across the Confederate line without any trouble from the Union.

Unfortunately for Mosby, when he sent back seven of his most trusted men, they were all caught and hanged by the Union Army. Mosby never returned to look for the treasure.

6 $63 Million Hidden in Bedford County, Virginia

Thomas Beale must have been a strange man. Legend has it that in 1816, Beale and a few men he was traveling with came into a large sum of gold and silver while mining somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. With such a large fortune, estimated to be around $63 million in today’s currency, all of the men wanted to make sure their next of kin would get the money should they perish. So Beale wrote three ciphers: One described the exact location of the treasure, the second described the contents of the treasure, and the third was a list of the men’s names and their next of kin. Beale then entrusted Robert Morriss, a Lynchburg, Virginia, innkeeper with the safekeeping of a box containing the ciphers.

Morriss was supposed to wait ten years before opening it. At this point, if Beale did not return for the box, a key to the cipher was supposed to be mailed to Morriss. But it never arrived. For years, Morriss and a friend tried to decode the three ciphers, but they could only manage the second cipher (the one describing the contents of the treasure).

5 Treasure of Jean LaFitte

Jean LaFitte, along with his brother Pierre, were French pirates who made their living attacking merchant ships in the Gulf of Mexico and then selling the goods at one of their many ports or through a warehouse they owned. Apparently, the two brothers were so good at smuggling and pirating that they amassed enough wealth that they had to resort to burying some it.

After LaFitte died sometime between 1823 and 1830, legend of his treasures began circulating around Louisiana. Claims have been made that there are large caches of treasure buried somewhere in Lake Borgne, right off the coast of New Orleans, and another about 3 miles east of the Old Spanish Trail near the Sabine River in a gum tree grove.

4 Butch Cassidy’s $20,000 Treasure

Butch Cassidy is arguably one of the most notable outlaws of the Wild West. He was such an outlaw that he even formed an outlaw group, called the Wild Bunch, to travel with him, robbing whomever they felt like. Before the law was hot on his tail, Cassidy and the Wild Bunch actually buried $20,000 somewhere in Irish Canyon, located in the northwestern part of Colorado in Moffat County.

3 John Dillinger’s Buried Treasure

Being an outlaw means you have money, and everyone knows John Dillinger had a lot of it. Only months before he died, he buried $200,000 in Wisconsin.

Dillinger was hiding out with a few of his outlaw buddies in April 1934. FBI agents found out they were hiding in the Little Bohemia Lodge in Mercer, Wisconsin, and they surrounded Dillinger, along with infamous bank robber Baby Face Nelson and the other men. The FBI shot the first three men walking out the door, all three of whom happened to be civilians. Amid all the confusion, the gangsters were able to escape out a back entrance. It is said that Dillinger ran a few hundred yards north of the roadhouse, where he buried $200,000 in small bills inside a suitcase.

Just two months later, Dillinger was shot to death in Chicago, never getting the chance to go back to find the money.

2 $200 Million off the Coast of Key West

In 1622, the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha was heading back to Spain when it was caught in a hurricane off the coast of Key West. Many ships perished in the hurricane, and all of them were carrying an enormous cargo of gold, silver, and gems that has been valued to be worth around $700 million today.

Most of the loot has already been found. In 1985, treasure hunter Mel Fisher found $500 million of the buried treasure less than 100 miles off the coast of Key West.

Experts believe there is still plenty of treasure to find. The original captain’s manifest states there are still about 17 tons of silver bars, 128,000 coins of different values, 60 pounds of emeralds, and 35 boxes of gold.

1 The Treasure of San Miguel

In 1712, Spain assembled one of the richest treasure fleets ever at that time. By 1715, Spain had amassed a fleet of 11 ships, all filled to the brim with silver, gold, pearls, and jewels, which are estimated to be worth about $2 billion by today’s standards.

The plan for the ships was to leave from Cuba for the mainland just before hurricane season hit, hoping the foul weather would be a deterrent to pirates and privateers. It turned out that leaving so close to hurricane season was a mistake. Just six days after departing the shores of Cuba, all of the ships had sunk, thousands of sailors had died, and every bit of gold, silver, and jewelry was doomed to lay at the bottom of the sea.

Since then, seven of the ships have been recovered, but experts believe only a small amount of the valuables on board has been found.

The one ship that has yet to be found is the San Miguel—the ship that experts believe contains most of the treasure.

But where is it? Well, most of the ships that have been found have been located off the eastern shores of Florida, although some may have made it farther out to sea before sinking.

Top 10 People Who Vanished into Thin Air

by Robin Warder

10 Maura Murray

On February 9, 2004, 21-year-old University of Massachusetts student Maura Murray e-mailed her professors and employer to tell them she was going away because of a (fabricated) death in the family. That night, she got into an accident by crashing her car into a tree near Woodsville, New Hampshire. Strangely, Maura had wrecked another car in an accident only a couple days earlier. A bus driver came by and asked Maura if she needed to call the police. Maura said no, but the driver called them anyway once he got to the nearest phone. When the police showed up ten minutes later, Maura had vanished.

There were no signs of any footprints or struggle at the scene, so it’s possible Maura got a ride from someone. The next day, Maura’s fiancé in Oklahoma received a voicemail which may have been from her, but he only heard sobbing on the other end of the line. While Maura had displayed some strange behavior in the days before she vanished, her family does not believe she disappeared willingly. After nine years, there is still no trace of what happened to her.

9 Brandon Swanson

Nineteen-year-old Brandon Swanson was heading back to his hometown of Marshall, Minnesota, on the evening of May 14, 2008, when he crashed his car into a ditch while driving on a rural gravel road. Brandon called his parents on his cell phone and asked them to come pick him up. They went looking for Brandon but were unable to find him. When Brandon’s father called him back, Brandon said he would try heading toward the nearby town of Lynd. In the middle of their conservation, Brandon suddenly swore and the call was abruptly cut off.

Brandon’s father tried calling him back several more times, but he never got an answer and was unable to find him. After police were notified, they found Brandon’s car, but they were unable to locate him or his cell phone. One theory is that he might have accidentally stumbled into a nearby river and drowned, but searches turned up no trace of his body. No one knows what prompted Brandon to swear during that phone call, and it’s the last anyone ever heard from him.

8 Louis Le Prince

Louis Le Prince was a French inventor who is renowned for having shot the world’s first moving pictures on film. Strangely, the father of cinematography is also remembered for being the subject of one of the strangest disappearances of all time. On September 16, 1890, Le Prince was visiting his brother in Dijon, France, before boarding a train to Paris. When the train arrived at its destination, Le Prince had completely vanished.

The last time anyone saw Le Prince he was entering his cabin after having checked his luggage into a separate compartment. Neither Le Prince nor his luggage was ever seen again. There had been no signs of foul play or anything suspicious during the trip, and no one could recall seeing Le Prince outside his cabin. The windows were tightly closed, so it would have been difficult for him to jump off the train, but suicide seemed like an unlikely option since Le Prince was planning to travel to America to get patents for his new inventions. Because Le Prince was unable to get those patents, Thomas Edison took credit for the invention of motion pictures. As for Le Prince, his ultimate fate still remains a mystery.

7 Michael Negrete

At 4 a.m. on December 10, 1999, an 18-year-old UCLA freshman named Michael Negrete logged off his computer after playing video games with his friends all night. At 9 a.m., Michael’s roommate woke up and noticed that he was gone but had left behind all his possessions, including his keys and wallet. He was never seen again.

The most curious aspect of Michael’s disappearance is that his shoes were also left behind. Investigators used search dogs to track Michael’s scent to a bus stop a couple miles away from campus, but would he really have walked that far without any shoes on? The only potential lead is an unidentified man who was seen in Dykstra Hall around 4:35 a.m. that day, but no one knows if he has any connection with Michael’s disappearance. There’s nothing in Michael’s background to suggest he might have disappeared willingly, so the trail on him has remained completely cold for over a decade.

6 Barbara Bolick

On July 18, 2007, Barbara Bolick, a 55-year-old woman from Corvallis, Montana, went on a hiking trip in the Bitterroot Mountains with Jim Ramaker, a friend who was visiting from California. They were heading toward Bear Creek Overlook when Jim stopped to look at a scenic view. Barbara had been 20–30 feet behind him at the time, but Jim claimed that after turning away from her for less than a minute, he looked back to see that she had completely vanished. After authorities were notified, an extensive search of the area turned up no trace of Barbara.

On the surface, Jim Ramaker’s story sounds pretty unbelievable. However, he was reportedly very cooperative with the authorities, and since there is no evidence that he did anything to Barbara, they do not consider him a suspect in her disappearance. It seemed likely that a guilty person would attempt to dream up a much better story than his victim simply vanishing into thin air. As of this writing, authorities haven’t found any trace of foul play or any hint of what may have happened to Barbara Bolick.

5 Michael Hearon

On August 23, 2008, 51-year-old Michael Hearon traveled from his condo to his farm in Happy Valley, Tennessee, with plans to mow the lawn. That morning, neighbors saw Michael leaving the farm on his ATV—the last known sighting of him. The next day, Michael’s friends visited the farm and saw his truck parked on the road with the windows rolled down. Michael’s trailer was also attached to the vehicle with his lawnmower loaded on top of it, but the farm’s lawn had not been mowed. His friends returned the next day and became concerned when they saw his truck parked in the same location and noticed that his keys, cell phone, and wallet were still inside.

Three days after Michael’s disappearance, investigators uncovered their only clue when they found Michael’s ATV on a steep hill about one mile from his home, a location he was never known to visit. Other than that, no major leads have surfaced and authorities could find no physical evidence to suggest foul play. Michael was not known to have any enemies or any reason to disappear on his own, so his whereabouts are a truly baffling mystery.

4 April Fabb

One of the most famous disappearances in British history took place in Norfolk, England, on April 8, 1969. A 13-year-old schoolgirl named April Fabb left her home in Metton to visit her sister in the nearby village of Roughton. She was taking the trip on her bicycle and was last seen riding down a country road by a truck driver at approximately 2:06 p.m. At 2:12 p.m., her bicycle was found lying in the middle of a field a few hundred yards away, but there was no sign of April.

Abduction seemed like a probable scenario in April’s disappearance, but the perpetrator would have had a very narrow window to work with. They had only six minutes to abduct April and disappear from the area without any witnesses seeing anything. An extensive search was made for April, but there was no hint of her whereabouts. Authorities found April’s case to be similar to the disappearance of another young British girl named Genette Tate in 1978, so notorious child murderer Robert Black was considered as a possible suspect. However, there’s nothing to conclusively link him to April’s disappearance, so it remains unsolved.

3 Brian Shaffer

Brian Shaffer was a 27-year-old medical student from Ohio State University who went to a bar called the Ugly Tuna Saloona on the evening of April 1, 2006. Sometime between 1:30 and 2 a.m., he mysteriously vanished. He had been drinking heavily that night and, after talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone, was last seen speaking to two young women. However, no one at the bar could remember seeing him after that.

The most baffling unanswered question in this case is how Brian exited the bar. The establishment’s surveillance footage clearly showed him arriving, but no footage could be found of his exit! None of his friends or family believed that he disappeared on his own. While he had been upset about his mother passing away three weeks before, he was doing well in school and had plans to go on vacation with his girlfriend. But if Brian was abducted and met with foul play, how did the perpetrator get him out of the bar without being seen by any witnesses or the security cameras?

2 Jason Jolkowski

On the morning of June 13, 2001, 19-year-old Jason Jolkowski was called in early to his job in Omaha, Nebraska. He asked a friend to pick him up at a nearby high school, but never showed up.

The last confirmed sighting of Jason was about a half hour before he was supposed to meet his friend, when a neighbor saw Jason carrying trash cans into his garage. Surveillance cameras from the high school show that he never made it there. Jason had no personal problems or reason to disappear on his own, and there is no evidence to suggest what may have happened to him. His fate remains a true unsolved mystery at the time of this writing.

In 2003, Jim and Kelly Jolkowski memorialized their son by founding Project Jason, a nonprofit organization that has become one of the most prominent resources for the families of missing persons.

1 Nicole Morin

On July 30, 1985, eight-year-old Nicole Morin left her mother’s penthouse apartment at the West Mall apartment building in Toronto, Ontario. After picking up the mail from the lobby at 10:30 a.m. that day, Nicole made plans to go swimming with her friend in the building’s pool. She said good-bye to her mother and left the apartment, but 15 minutes later, her friend buzzed the apartment again to ask why Nicole hadn’t arrived.

Nicole’s disappearance led to one of the largest police investigations in Toronto’s history, but they could find no trace of her. The most likely theory was that someone could have abducted Nicole right after she left her apartment, but the building was 20 stories high, so it would have been very difficult to get her out of there undetected. One tenant did say they saw Nicole make it to the elevator, but no one else reported hearing or seeing anything. Nearly 30 years later, authorities have still never turned up any solid evidence to determine what happened to Nicole Morin.

Top 10 Creepy Mysteries Involving Unidentified People

by Robin Warder

10 Benjaman Kyle

On the morning of August 31, 2004, a nude man was found between two dumpsters behind a Burger King in Richmond Hill, Georgia. He appeared to be in his fifties and sported three depressions in his head, which seemed to indicate that he had been struck with a blunt object. He had no identification and could not remember his name or where he was from. When examined by doctors, they determined that the man had retrograde amnesia and was unlikely to regain his memory.

Since he was found behind a Burger King, the man was nicknamed B. K. and he soon chose Benjaman Kyle as his new name. He seems to think that the unusually spelled Benjaman is his real first name. Benjaman does have memory fragments of a distant past, which could provide clues about his true identity. He believes that he hails from Indianapolis and lived in Colorado for a time. Benjaman is also convinced that his birth date is August 29, 1948, and he seems to have a detailed knowledge of the restaurant business. Investigators have used many avenues to figure out who Benjaman really is, such as DNA testing, fingerprint checks, and numerous media appearances. But Benjaman Kyle remains a man without an identity.

9 Bella in the Wych Elm

On April 18, 1943, four boys from Stourbridge, England, were playing in Hagley Woods when they came across a large witch hazel tree. When one of the boys climbed the tree, he discovered a human skull in the hollow trunk. After police were notified, they found an entire skeleton concealed in the tree, along with a shoe, gold wedding ring, and fragments of clothing. A severed human hand was also buried next to the tree. A piece of taffeta was found in the skull’s mouth, indicating that the victim had died from asphyxiation. A forensic examination determined that the victim was female and had been dead at least 18 months. Coincidentally, a resident had reported hearing a female scream in Hagley Woods about 18 months beforehand.

Though the woman was never identified, her legend grew months later after mysterious graffiti messages started appearing on walls, which often read, Who put Bella in the Wych elm? These messages all appeared to be written by the same unknown person, who may have had knowledge about what happened. This message last appeared in 1999 when it was sprayed on the 200-year-old Wychbury Obelisk. It was theorized that the unidentified woman might have been the victim of black magic, or that she was a member of a spy ring and was giving secrets to the Luftwaffe about local munitions factories. After 70 years, there are still no answers about who Bella was or who put her in the Wych elm.

8 Perseus

Over the course of several decades, the United States and the Soviet Union had no shortage of spies passing information to the other side, but one of the most prominent was never discovered. During World War II, the U.S. worked on the Manhattan Project, where they developed and produced the world’s first atomic bombs. At least three people who worked on the project—Klaus Fuchs, David Greenglass, and Theodore Hall—were exposed as spies for the Soviet Union. However, in 1991, a Russian intelligence colonel named Vladimir Chikov published a series of articles claiming that the Soviets received important information about the project from an unidentified spy code-named Perseus. According to Chikov, Perseus was a high-level scientist who worked at the White Sands Missile Range and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He supposedly came aboard the Manhattan Project over a year before any of the other known spies, and the secrets he provided helped give the Soviets a head start in developing their own nuclear program. In 1999, Philip Morrison, a well-respected MIT physicist who had worked on the project, was publicly accused of being Perseus, but Morrison was able to produce a lot of credible evidence supporting his innocence. Some have speculated that Perseus did not exist, but if he was real, he has successfully gotten away with espionage for 70 years.

7 John Doe No. 24

On the morning of October 11, 1945, police found an unidentified African-American teenager wandering the streets of Jacksonville, Illinois. The young man was mute and deaf and was unable to communicate. He was eventually brought before a judge, who sentenced him to the Lincoln State School and Colony. Because he was the 24th unidentified man to be put into the state’s mental health system, he forever became known as John Doe No. 24. At the time, state institutions were notorious for being brutal and dehumanizing, so John was subjected to many years of abuse.

To add to his hardships, he eventually went blind. However, in spite of his rough existence, John Doe No. 24 somehow managed to maintain a positive attitude and sense of humor. After remaining in the mental healthcare system for over 30 years, he was eventually transferred to a nursing home in Peoria. John often scribbled down the name Lewis, providing a possible clue to his true identity, but no one discovered who he really was. He was believed to be 64 years old when he died of a stroke on November 28, 1993. After learning of his story, musician Mary Chapin Carpenter decided to purchase a headstone for his unmarked grave and immortalized him in a song called John Doe No. 24.

6 The Rodney Alcala Photos

Notorious serial killer Rodney Alcala currently sits on death row at San Quentin State Prison. He became known as the Dating Game Killer after appearing as a contestant on The Dating Game during the midst of his murder spree. After he won the show, his potential date made the wise decision to not go out with him. Alcala was convicted of seven murders, but authorities have always suspected there were more. The mystery was heightened after Alcala’s arrest in 1979 when investigators searched a storage locker he had rented in Seattle and found trophies of his crimes, along with over 1,000 disturbing photographs.

These photos feature numerous unidentified young women and teenage boys, most of whom are pictured nude or in sexually explicit poses. Alcala often passed himself off as a professional fashion photographer in order to lure people into his home to pose for him, and authorities fear that some of the individuals in his photos might be undiscovered victims. Most of the photos are too sexually explicit to be published, but in 2010, 120 of them were released to the public in order to seek their assistance. Thus far, over 20 women have been identified. Some people believe they have recognized a missing loved one in the photos. While none of these individuals has been positively identified as a missing person or unsolved homicide victim, there may come a time when they are realized as casualties of the Dating Game Killer.

5 The Persian Princess

While conducting a murder investigation, Pakistani authorities questioned a man named Ali Akbar, who had made a videotape showcasing that he had a mummy on sale for 600 million rupees ($11 million). On October 19, 2000, the mummy was located inside a gilded wooden coffin at the home of a tribal leader named Wali Mohammed Reeki, who claimed he had received the mummy from an Iranian who found it after an earthquake in Quetta, Pakistan. One week later, a press conference was held to announce that the mummy had been identified as a Persian princess from around 600 BC.

However, suspicions were immediately aroused when American archaeologist Oscar White Muscarella claimed he had previously been sent photographs of this mummy on behalf of a Pakistani dealer who was attempting to sell it. A piece of the mummy’s coffin had been sent to a carbon-dating lab for analysis and was discovered to be only 250 years old.

Upon further investigation, it was eventually determined that this so-called Persian princess was actually a female in her twenties who had died in 1996. She had possibly been murdered after a blow to the neck with a blunt instrument, and her body had been filled with powder after her organs were removed. The whole thing was exposed as a hoax and the woman finally received a proper burial in 2008, but her true identity is still a mystery.

4 The Batman Rapist

Britain’s longest-running rape investigation is code-named Operation Eagle and has been going on for 22 years. Authorities have spent that time attempting to catch an unidentified sexual predator who is responsible for at least 17 attacks, all but one of which have taken place within the city of Bath. The assailant first struck on May 21, 1991, when he attacked a 36-year-old woman returning home in her car. His modus operandi consists of attacking women in their vehicles and forcing them to drive to a secluded area at knifepoint, where he then proceeds to rape them. After one unsuccessful attack in 1999, the assailant left behind a hat with the Batman logo on it, which led to him being dubbed the Batman Rapist. One of the rapist’s most bizarre characteristics is an apparent tights fetish. He will often force the victim to remove their underwear and put their tights back on, so that he can rip through them to rape her. On one occasion, the victim wasn’t wearing tights, so he forced her to put on a pair he had brought with him. In 2000, he even attempted to abduct a woman who had her seven-year-old daughter in the car, but she managed to get away. During the mid-’90s, there were a few long gaps when the rapist was inactive, leading authorities to suspect that he has attacked other victims who never came forward. There is currently a substantial reward for the capture of the Batman Rapist, but his identity still remains unknown.

3 Joseph Newton Chandler III

On July 30, 2002, Joseph Newton Chandler III, an elderly hermit from Eastlake, Ohio, committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy discovered the presence of colon cancer in his body, which likely motivated his decision to take his own life. When probate courts attempted to work out the man’s estate, they tracked down his surviving relatives. They were shocked to discover that nine-year-old Joseph Newton Chandler III had actually been killed in a car crash in Texas in 1945!

It turned out this unidentified man had been using Chandler’s identity for decades. In 1978, he had requested a copy of Chandler’s birth certificate and used it to apply for a Social Security card. Many theories were formed about who this man really was. Crime buffs began to speculate that Chandler might have been the Zodiac Killer since he bore a resemblance to the suspect’s composite sketch. They also noted that Joseph Chandler happened to be the name of an investigator who found one of Jack the Ripper’s victims. The man also bore a striking resemblance to Stephen Craig Campbell, a fugitive who had been wanted for attempted murder since 1982 and was never caught. However, there is no conclusive evidence to prove any of these theories, so no one knows the real story behind the man who stole the identity of Joseph Newton Chandler III.

2 Roland Doe/Robbie Mannheim

In 1973, William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel The Exorcist was adapted into one of the most successful movies of all time. It told the story of a young girl being possessed by a demon, and believe it or not, it was actually inspired by a real-life incident. In 1949, a 13-year-old boy from Cottage City, Maryland, was supposedly possessed by a demon and subject to an exorcism. To protect his identity, he has only been publicly referred to as Roland Doe or Robbie Mannheim. After the death of his spiritualist aunt, Roland reportedly became obsessed with using a Ouija board to contact her. Soon afterward, the family’s home was plagued by strange noises and unexplained supernatural activity.

The family’s Lutheran minister feared that Roland might be possessed, so two Catholic priests—Father Raymond J. Bishop and Father William J. Bowdern—were brought in to perform an exorcism on him at Georgetown University Hospital. The exorcism was performed 30 times over the course of several weeks. Roland reportedly exhibited violent behavior and often spoke Latin in a demonic voice while words like evil and hell mysteriously appeared on his body. After the exorcism was complete, the family experienced no more problems and Roland grew up to live a normal life. There has been much debate about whether Roland was actually possessed or if a lot of these stories have been fabricated and the boy was merely experiencing psychological problems. Since his true identity is still a secret after all these years, the full truth may never be known.

1 Suzanne Davis/Sharon Marshall/Tonya Dawn Tadlock

In April 1990, a young woman named Tonya Dawn Tadlock was killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident in Oklahoma. The prime suspect was her much older husband, Clarence Hughes, but it turned out they were both living under pseudonyms. Hughes was actually a former convicted felon named Franklin Delano Floyd. However, no one could uncover the young woman’s identity. Floyd claimed to have taken her in as a child in the early 1970s after she was abandoned by her real family, though authorities have always suspected she was abducted. Before they were married in 1989, Floyd raised the girl as his daughter, subjecting her to constant abuse. Over the years, they lived in different states under different names and she was also known as Suzanne Davis and Sharon Marshall. On March 21, 1988, she had given birth to a son named Michael. Shortly after her death, Floyd was arrested and Michael was placed in foster care. A blood test would later reveal that Floyd was not Michael’s biological father. After being released from jail in 1994, Floyd abducted Michael from his school in Oklahoma. When he was arrested two months later, Michael was nowhere to be found, though it is believed that Floyd murdered him. Floyd would be convicted of Michael’s kidnapping and another unrelated murder and currently sits on death row in Florida. To this day, he refuses to divulge any information about what happened to Michael, who Michael’s real father may be, or the true identity of the mysterious girl he raised as his daughter.

Top 10 Mysterious Urban Legends Based on Video Footage

by Bryan Johnson

10 The Grifter

The Grifter is an urban legend that began to circulate on the Internet in 2009. The video is said to show horrifying images of people being tortured and killed. Viewers of the movie can experience nausea, trauma, night terrors, clinical depression, and even commit suicide. The content shows the human sacrifice of small babies and images of Satanic ritual abuse. In some cases, people have attempted to make a copy of the film, but all attempts have failed.

It has been said that the video was recorded in the 1930s and portrays a collection of strange pictures and sounds. In one part of the movie, the words Your race is the one that is dying appear while a picture of a rotting plant is seen. The footage displays close-up shots of corpses and people who have been possessed by demons. It has been described as the most disturbing video available on the Internet. However, many feel the tape is a hoax and nothing more than an urban legend. The story of the Grifter has spawned an Internet meme in which threads that discuss hoax videos are considered to be trolling for information on bizarre clips.

9 Garden City Ghost Car

A few years back a video surfaced on the Internet of a police chase in Garden City, Georgia, that has been dubbed the Ghost Car. In the video, officers can be seen attempting to pull over a white vehicle that is driving erratically. After a while, the driver swerves and makes a U-turn. The car moves off the highway, hits a dirt road, and comes to a dead end. It then moves to the left and disappears behind a chain-link fence.

The driver was never captured and it was revealed that the area beyond the fence was wooded with no roads. After examining the footage, many people have commented that the car traveled under the fence. However, this doesn’t explain what happened to the driver and why the police ended the pursuit. After the area was searched, the officers recovered the video and were shocked. The clip was featured on the television show Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, in which a stunt driver re-created the footage by driving through a chain-link fence that was weakened at the base. The stunt showed that a car is capable of traveling through a fence without knocking it over. However, it wasn’t filmed on location. To date, the original Garden City surveillance video continues to baffle watchers.

8 Red Mist

SpongeBob SquarePants is a television show that is extremely popular around the world and has earned more than $8 billion in merchandising revenue for Nickelodeon. The cartoon features a wide variety of characters that live in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. One of these characters is named Squidward Tentacles. The show is made for kids, but in 2004 an urban legend emerged surrounding a lost episode of the show that is said to display Squidward’s suicide.

As the story goes, a disgruntled Scottish animator named Andrew Skinner developed an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2004 called Red Mist. He tried to pass off the episode as the official season 4 premiere and sent it to Hollywood for approval. In California, animators watched the tape and discovered a dark secret. The video starts with the picture of a salesman at Squidward’s house. He knocks on the door and says, The red mist is coming; Squidward is confused. The tape flashes to a picture of Squidward playing the clarinet in front of a large crowd and SpongeBob can be seen violently booing the performance.

Squidward’s body language is depressed. He returns to his house and sits in a chair with a blank look on his face. The audio turns scratchy, Squidward starts to cry and the tape begins to flash. At this point a series of real pictures come to view. The images show the body of a dead boy with his face mangled and entrails exposed. The shadow of the photographer is visible and the tape shows pictures of a deceased girl. The song Amazing Grace plays and the video goes into a sequence of frames in which the boy is mutilated. The words do it can be heard while Squidward pulls out a shotgun and commits suicide.

The event was so horrifying that three of the animators were hospitalized, including Barry O’Neill, Grant Kirkland, Jr., and Alyssa Simpson. One editor named Fernando de la Peña retired and an intern named Jackie McMullen committed suicide. It was reported that the tape was later tracked to Andrew Skinner, who was arrested for nine counts of murder, including the two children seen in the video.

After viewing the tape, a copy of the footage was made by an intern at Paramount Studios and released on the Internet. However, it was quickly removed by police and only a screenshot of Squidward’s red eyes remains. Research on the story doesn’t bring many results except for one article from 2002 that briefly mentions a man from Fife, Scotland, named Andrew Skinner who was arrested for attempted murder.

7 Chaplin Time Travel Video

The Circus is a silent film that was written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. The film was a box office success and raised $3.8 million in 1928. In 2004, a copy of the movie was released on DVD with bonus footage. The footage shows pictures of the public attending the film, including a premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. After looking over the material, an Irish filmmaker named George Clarke noticed something out of the ordinary in a clip of the public entering the premiere.

The footage shows a woman dressed in a heavy coat and hat holding what looks like a black object to her head. As she walks, it appears she is talking on a cell phone, which would be impossible in 1928. Toward the end of the footage, the woman can be seen stopping and chatting in a fashion similar to modern day cell phone users. She is wearing large shoes and has big hands.

After zooming in on the video, it is clear the woman is holding a black object to her head, which caused Clarke to post a video on YouTube questioning whether she might be a time traveler sent back in time to watch Chaplin’s performance. In response, the story made headlines all over the world. It has since been discovered that the woman could be using a pocket-sized carbon microphone called the Siemens 1924 hearing aid. Others feel she is holding an ear trumpet. However, the explanation hasn’t addressed why she is talking.

6 Groupie

Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner) is a controversial rock star who has sold over 50 million albums worldwide. He gained mainstream attention in the 1990s after media reports surfaced that described his shocking behavior on and off stage. Over the years, Manson has been the target of multiple attacks by the press who view his music as detrimental to children. Manson has produced some of the most disturbing videos on the Internet. In 2011, he collaborated with actor Shia LaBeouf to make a movie called Born Villain, which is said to contain shocking and violent images.

However, the most controversial video attributed to Marilyn Manson is called Groupie. The legend of the tape says that it was recorded by his band during their Antichrist Superstar Tour (1996–1998) and shows a fan being tortured by Marilyn and bass player Twiggy (Jeordie White). According to the story, the footage was captured on a handheld camcorder and shows Manson ordering the groupie to perform various acts.

The film starts out with Marilyn informing his guests that the girl will be taped. When she arrives, the party takes a weird turn.

After a short while, the girl is ordered to do things like drink a glass of urine with keyboard player Stephen Bier. The tape then turns dark while Manson ties the woman up and taunts her. As the video progresses, the members of the party become uneasy, as they are unclear if the events are staged or not. The video involves torture, weapons, and bloodshed.

Officially, there are only three people who have viewed Groupie: Manson, Tony Ciulla, and Andy Dick. However, evidence of the film can be found at the end of the band’s Dead to the World video series in which an obscured shot of a tied-up woman can be viewed. During the scene, Marilyn is heard taunting the girl with the phrase Jesus loves me because the Bible says so. The footage might have come from Groupie.

5 Texas Chupacabra

The Chupacabra (goat sucker) is a cryptid that has been identified in certain parts of the Americas. The creature is known for killing livestock and drinking their blood. The Chupacabra has a wide range of physical characteristics; some people have identified it as being a lizard-type creature with a long spine, while others say it is a smaller animal that looks like a bald coyote with sharp fangs, or a type of coyote, wolf, and dog hybrid.

Despite discrepancies in the creature’s appearance, the Chupacabra is known to kill by stealthily attacking its prey and inflicting a series of three small puncture wounds to the chest and neck of its victim. The puncture wounds resemble an upside-down triangle, and the animal is then killed and drained of blood. The death is usually reported because of the bizarre circumstances. Currently, there are no large animals that practice hematophagy, or the act of drinking blood for food.

A large number of Chupacabra sightings have been made in Mexico and Texas. In most cases, a coyote-type creature has been blamed for killing livestock. One such example was the Elmendorf Beast, a hairless animal that was killed in 2004 and thought to be a wolf-coyote cross. One of the features of the creature was a long snout, which has come to characterize the beast. On August 8, 2008, Brandon Riedel, a police offer in DeWitt County, Texas, filmed a strange animal from his dash camera in the town of Cuero. In the video, the creature can be seen running away from the car and looks like a hairless coyote-type creature with a long snout and big ears. The snout of the creature has baffled many experts.

The footage was featured on the television show Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files where experts attempted to re-create the tape with a miniature horse.